Former Liberal worried (4)
I believe the answer is:
late
'former' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'liberal worried' is the wordplay.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'worried' becomes 'ate' (something worrying may eat someone up).
'l'+'ate'='LATE'
(Other definitions for late that I've seen before include "Behindhand" , "Behind schedule" , "After the usual time" , "not quick enough" , "Recently dead" .)